Strava for Handcycle and Wheelchair Activities

Beyond just a ride or a run, you can classify your Strava activities under the handcycle or wheelchair category. We are excited to better support Strava athletes with physical challenges and we look forward to seeing the community build around these new activity categories.

How to record a Handcycle or Wheelchair activity:

To upload an activity from the Strava app for iOS or Android, choose either a ride or a run to get started. After you finish recording, you can save the activity as a Handcycle or Wheelchair by changing the Sport type.

Comments

I was a cat 3 masters racer before a reckless driver left me a paraplegic. So now I'm getting into handcycling but Strava doesn't allow me to assign rides to different handcycles. It may seem a small thing (it is), but I always tracked the miles on my crit bike, road bike, MTB, etc. this way and would love to be able to track miles per handcycle.

Many of the clubs continue to use bike because the stats don't aggregate under handcycle - so in clubs and comparisons & segments they can't continue to compare with peers. I would highly suggest including handcycle activities with bike to increase adoption of using handcycle.

No Eric, I'm not suggesting you do anything. I'm suggesting Strava amend the app.

I'm saying a current barrier to using the handcycle activity is that many handcyclists already have a history of 11 mph rides under the bike activity because everyone else is doing the same. The reason being they can't compare themselves to other handcyclists or be included in aggregate club activities, which are key to the social aspect of Strava.

Thanks Elle - I would love it too, I think we're finding that user adoption has a barrier in what I mentioned. I also realized I want to be included in aggregate ride stats for mixed groups like my triathlon club.

I just found the handcycle sport category - thank you for including this. In addition to the suggestions already mentioned, it would also be great to keep the 'bikes' field under handcycle. I have two that I use, and other people are in a similar situation. It would also allow people to add a separate bike for when they decide to use a bionix (electric) wheel for one of their rides.

Hi Strava Guys and Gals,
As a handcyclist, I sincerely appreciate your efforts to include us in unique ways that account for the "differences" between us and stand-up cyclists. I would submit an observation:
Since we are cyclists first and "disabled" second, perhaps an alternative way to handle the issue would be to add it as a designation in our athlete profile. No matter what type of cycling I am doing, it will be in a handcycle, much like we are male or female. this would retain for all of the provisions that are provided to the various athletes that are not disabled, i.e. different bikes, different activity types, mountain or road, etc. Since we parallel able-bodied cyclists but have a permanent aspect of ourselves that we can't change, it should be treated as such in the same way that gender or age are fixed.
There are several reasons for this:

1) We can designate what kind of activity we did...if it was a road ride, it was on a road handcycle. etc.

2) it would allow a KOM for handcycles, separate from roadies. I, personally, see significant value in this, as it allows us to see where we are compared to equivalent athletes in the same way that my wife can achieve a QOM instead of needing to beat all of the men, also.

3) we can still be grouped and see where we stand compared to all other cyclists that have attempted the same segment. I am always interested in this metric, as it a huge motivator to be near the same performance as AB cyclists.

I completely support many of the above comments, especially those of Craig C.

It’s disappointing that I see myself showing no activities when I use a hand cycle. It’s also disappointing that my hand cycle has 0km ridden because it’s classified as a bike in my gear but a hand cycle activity isn’t a ride.